2. Contact Info

3. Dealer Selection

Let’s clear up something right away: It doesn’t feel like a truck. This Spec Truck Series Chevrolet S-10 drives so much like a conventional stock car that first-timers’ conversations are liberally sprinkled with the phrase “…the car, uh, I mean truck….” With potent V-8 power, svelte minimum weight, near-even front-rear weight distribution, and hard, narrow tires, these cars, uh, I mean trucks, feel much like Late Model stock cars-or even like their bigger cousins from the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Only not nearly as loud nor as expensive: For the price of a complete, ready-to-race Spec Truck, you couldn’t come close to buying an engine for a Craftsman truck.

Spec Truck Series vehicles feature a 285-horsepower Chevy V-8 engine shoehorned into a stout, stock-car-type tubeframe chassis that’s topped by a flexible fiberglass replica of the Chevrolet S-10 compact pickup body. The Spec Truck Series is a one-design class much like Legends cars and SCCA’s Spec Racer. Trucks, complete with engines, must be purchased from a single source, Spec Truck, Inc., for the very reasonable price of $19,900-not much more than you’d pay for a loaded Honda Civic. No modifications are permitted to engine, chassis, or body, though suspension setup changes, including spring rates and shock valving, are allowed.

Spec Truck was created by veteran off-road truck racer Jon Nelson soon after he left the desert to run the diminutive, motorcycle-engined Legends cars on paved ovals. With Spec Truck, Nelson sought to create a class that retained the Legends’ concept of equal, affordable competition but added big V-8 fun. Oh, yeah, and it had to be a truck.

Central to “equal, affordable” is the series’ required powerplant: Chevrolet’s ZZ3 “crate” engine. Spec Truck buys the engines from the GM Performance Parts catalog and then slaps on a set of seals to prevent tinkering. Topped by a single two-barrel 500-cfm carburetor and employing a mild camshaft with hydraulic lifters, the engine is self-limiting to about 6000 rpm, which makes Nelson think they’ll last about 10,000 racing laps before rebuilds are needed.

Transmission is a TCI two-speed kind-of-automatic. This adaptation of the GM Powerglide has no torque converter, but uses a pedal-operated control valve to dump line pressure and disengage engine from driveshaft.

Unlike with some stock cars, which are but caricatures of their namesakes, Spec Truck dimensions closely match those of a short-cab version road-going S-10. The two share wheelbases, but the race version is 6 inches wider thanks to its 6-inch-wider track, while its roof is more than 11 inches lower.

The tubeframe chassis resembles a 71/48-scale version of that found under any short-track late model. Suspension looks like it’s straight off a NASCAR Southwest Tour car: unequal-length control arms up front, with trailing arms and a Panhard rod locating the full-floating Grand National-style rear axle. The bed-mounted radiator is virtually invulnerable. Spec Trucks feature a 51/49-percent front/rear weight distribution, which exactly matches that of the new C5 Corvette and eliminates any truck-like feeling.

With a minimum weight, driver included, of 2550 pounds, the trucks hustle from 0 to 60 mph in a more than respectable 4.6 seconds but, geared for short ovals, they run out of revs before the end of the quarter mile. Until well down the straightaway of Cajon Speedway, a near-flat paved 31/48-mile oval, the trucks have more than enough power to overpower their narrow (27.0×8.0-15), hard Goodyear Racing Eagles. Though Nelson says the Eagles maintain constant grip for more than 600 laps, the Spec Truck gripped our skidpad at a neck-straining 1.2 g. On the track, they require a patient, precise touch to prevent overwhelming the tires under braking, cornering, or acceleration. With only a few tenths of a second covering the entire field in qualifying, the series rewards both driving and chassis setup skills.

Although the series, sponsored by Ultra Wheels, has conducted some exploratory events on road courses and dirt ovals, Spec Truck now mainly runs on short (quarter- to 31/48-mile) paved ovals.

With more than 40 trucks in racers’ hands and a full season of competition on the record books, this isn’t another of those too-often-experienced pipe-dream press-release series. Rather it’s a real alternative for budget-minded racers looking for close competition and some tough driving challenges.

Winners On DisplayNot that many years ago, the only place retired NASCAR race cars were displayed was in an impromptu junkyard behind the shop. Today, pensioned Winston Cup veterans are displayed in beautiful modern museums like the Hendrick Motorsports Museum, located in the shadow of Charlotte Motor Speedway in Harrisburg, N.C. Each year more than 100,000 people visit the Hendrick Museum, which features more than a dozen race cars and trucks, ranging from Jeff Gordon’s championship-winning No. 24 DuPont Monte Carlo to Hendrick’s IMSA Corvette GTP.

The regularly changed display also includes a variety of Chevrolet concept cars, some hot off the auto show circuit and others from the ’50s and ’60s. In addition, the museum shares a 40-foot-long glass wall with the race shop of one of Hendrick Motorsports’ three Winston Cup teams. Visitors can watch mechanics prepare Ricky Craven’s No. 25 Budweiser Monte Carlo for its next outing.

Admission is free of charge, and the museum is open 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on weekdays, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays, and is closed Sundays and major holidays.

Three WideLook closely, Hendrick Motorsports’ history-making one-two-three finish by Jeff Gordon, Terry Labonte, and Ricky Craven at this year’s Daytona 500 is a scene that may never be repeated. This is not only because three-car NASCAR teams are just slightly less rare than non-smoking grandstands at Winston Cup races, but also because getting one car into the top three at the Daytona 500 is a major accomplishment for most teams, and sweeping all three top spots is beyond the hopes of even the most optimistic NASCAR owner. All except Rick Hendrick, that is.

Fourth TurnThey Held a Race and a Hockey Game Broke Out: The National Hockey League will sponsor Lance Norick’s L&R Motorsports entry in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Only a tiny fraction of NASCAR fans follow hockey, so NHL Enterprises Group President Ed Horne said this was an effort to expose one hard-hitting sport to fans of another hard-hitting sport…On the Information Superspeedway: NASCAR reports that its Internet Website (www.nascar.com) records more than seven million “hits” per week. The site includes “up-to-the-minute” qualifying and race results from all 12 NASCAR divisions, as well as driver and team bios and the opportunity to purchase NASCAR-licensed merchandise…The World Includes the U.S.: The FIA’s new World GT Championship, which supplants the Global GT series, will conclude its ’97 season in the U.S. The international series will run in conjunction with International Motor Sports Association events, Oct. 18 at Sebring and Oct. 26 at Laguna Seca…Penske at Indy: In a recent interview in National Speed Sport News, Roger Penske said he would like to compete again in the Indy 500…if Tony George would allow him to build his own chassis and run an Ilmor-constructed Mercedes engine. Current Indy Racing League rules require chassis and engines be approved more than a season in advance and be sold to any competitor for restricted prices.